Needless to say, we were humiliated beyond all belief at the pitch. All we had was a hard copy of our supposed interactive, multi-media presentation. Sitting in a room with six global directors of an international company with nothing meaningful to show was the most demoralising experience of my professional life. Our integrity in tatters, I began the process of seeking recompense.

It took BT over two weeks to fix the fault. They claimed the line we had been using for a year should never have worked. We had hundreds of pointless phone conversations with BT staff, none of whom could fix the problem or even give us the reason for the cessation. We were losing thousands of pounds every day. Engineers arrived on a seemingly daily basis, but still they couldn’t work it out.

Throughout this process there was no empathy for our plight, no acceptance of responsibility, no apology for the appalling treatment of a growing, modern business. The communication was characterised by a patronising, “not my department” type of attitude illustrative of the absolutely archaic culture that dominates this clunky, stagnant and non-dynamic organisation.

Finally, BT admitted that had installed the actual line into our offices incorrectly in the first place. Again, no apology. They installed a new line and tried to charge us for it. They refused to pay any compensation except for the offer of a year’s free broadband and I had the pleasure of being patronised daily by so-called senior BT execs, as I sought a modicum of fairness from corporate drones incapable of saying anything other than preaching the party line.

The next step was to contact Otelo and seek compensation. They told us they pay a maximum of five grand which I accepted on the basis that of that was the amount we lost on the day of the pitch. I thought any fair-minded person would grant us the £5k almost as a matter of course.

No chance. Otelo’s so-called comprehensive case review failed to pick up BT’s offer of a year's free broadband and they offered us £500, plus a letter of apology from BT, if you can believe it. I demanded that the case be re-opened because it was obvious that this investigation was as shallow and skin-deep as the whole escapade. I sent a letter re-stating my case and it was agreed that the file would be re-opened.

We are now almost eleven months on and today an Otelo staff member recited the “final decision” of the Ombudsman. A year's free broadband, £500 and that same old letter of apology is the decision following a further extensive investigation. No reasoning as to how the figure of £500 was decided upon and even the Otelo guy I was talking to was unable to offer any explanation as to how this decision was reached.

I have nowhere left to go except to the courts. My company has been mugged of £5k at least. We might even have won the case. We paid for an installation that was proved faulty and BT have consistently refused to accept any responsibility. They couldn’t even get it together enough to tell us they were going to switch off. The engineers were no help and now Otelo have proved that being sold down the river by corporate monoliths is acceptable in modern day Britain.

So, next time you are watching one of BT’s dreadful TV ads featuring the trendy dysfunctional family that pisses off everybody or you read one of their full page ads encouraging everyone to sign up to their interactive, multi-media range of services, or you see one of their vans adorned with the oh-so-contemporary logo, just remember that it is paid for predominantly by the cash nicked from poor sods like me that have no option but to use them as our provider. No-one else offers broadband in our area. We have no choice. They know it and have the power to ride roughshod over enterprising entrepreneurs committed to business visions at odds with the culture of complacency that characterises BT.

I encourage Kevin Roberts to build a site dedicated to brands we hate. Hatemarks.com would give us all a voice to demand a better service, a place to tell the true stories that are illustrative of the crumbling telecoms infrastructure so prevalent in the UK. Otelo offers no sanctuary and I have wasted hours and hours fighting the injustice of their hapless processes, clueless service levels and insincere explanations.

Now, I will publicise the whole sorry story and I will be posting your letters and excuses all over the Internet in the coming weeks. It will probably make no difference, but if just one person or company decides to use another provider, it will at least make me feel better.